Energy Profiles and Rate Laws for El Eliminations

Take a look at the derivation of the rate law for this El elimination  

Equation 4.6 shows the unimolecularity of this reaction (from which the designation El elimination is derived). 

Tertiary alcohols, tertiary ethers, or carboxylic acid esters of tertiary alcohols can undergo El eliminations, but only in the presence of Bronsted or Lewis acids. Anyone who has prepared a tertiary alkoxide by a Grignard reaction and treated the crude reaction mixture with HC1 and obtained the alkene knows that tertiary alcohols can be converted into alkenes even with dilute hydrochloric acid. 

The acid/base equilibrium (protonation of the ether) is constantly maintained. This implies 

In addition, the acid/base equilibrium of trifluoroacetic acid must be established, which is expressed in Equations 4.13 and 4.14  

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